Lower Merion, Narberth Join Suit To Allow Plastic Bag Ban

Lower Merion and Narberth have joined Philadelphia and West Chester in an effort to reverse a provison in the Pennsylvania state budget that prohibits municipalities from regulating or taxing the use of “single-use plastics, auxiliary containers, wrappings or polystyrene containers.”

According to the City of Philadelphia’s Website, “The Philadelphia, West Chester, Lower Merion and Narberth suit argues that the measure is unconstitutional for several reasons. Among them is that it violates Article I, Section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, which provides that “[t]he people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania’s public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.” The suit also argues that the manner in which the legislature passed Section 1706-E(d) of Act 23 violated other provisions of the Constitution regarding legislative procedures.”